Attorney General Bill McCollum is among those waiting for Gov. Charlie Crist to decide if he will run for re-election or seek a spot in the U.S. Senate. McCollum said recently he will run for a second term as AG "unless circumstances change."
But as McCollum, like Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, continues to wait he has set up a separate account that could help him, albeit indirectly.
McCollum has a committee of continuous existence called the Building Integrity and Lasting Leadership Fund, or BillFund for short. And since its creation last year he has used the separate account to give money to both legislative candidates as well as the Republican Party of Florida.
McCollum has raised more than $79,000 for the account as of March, with money coming from stalwart Republican donors as well as others such as the Florida Justice Reform Institute. The institute, which gave McCollum's fund $5,000, is a supporter of the legislation that would place limits on contingency fee caps with outside attorneys that contract with the Attorney General's office. This legislation recently caused a dust-up in the Florida House.
Other contributors of note: GrayRobinson, $5k; Greenberg Traurig, $5k; Tew Cardenas, $3k. The biggest contributor so far has been South Florida venture capitalist Jonathan Kislak who donated $10,000.
So far more than $62,000 from the account has been spent including $25,000 sent to the Republican Party of Florida and a series of $500 donations to 16 legislative campaigns.
When asked recently about his CCE, McCollum said the fund allows him to fulfill his Republican Party obligations outside what he called the "non-partisan" AG's office and help the party and candidates.
"I wear two hats,'' said McCollum. "I am in what I think is a fairly non partisan position and very frankly happy that it is, it's Attorney General. But I am also viewed within the Republican Party of Florida as one of the three statewide elected officials so I have certain obligations and this allows me to fulfill some of those. It's sometimes frankly easier to raise money into the BillFund than to get people to write a check directly to the Republican Party of Florida."
Comments